Presented by the Newfoundland's Grand Banks Site to assist you in researching your Family History

Click on the graphic below to return to the NGB Home Page

To contribute to this site, see above menu item "About".

These transcriptions may contain human errors. As always, confirm these, as you would any other source material.

A Collection of Newfoundland Wills(W)Thomas Were

Will of Thomas Were
from Newfoundland will books volume 3 pages 370 to 374 probate year 1874

In re Thomas Were deceased.

This is the last will and testament of me Thomas Were of Number 35 Osborne Terrace Clapham Road in the County of Surrey Gentleman I appoint my dear wife Edith Francklin Were my sons Thomas Francklin Were and Henry Were and my nephew Robert Were Coleman to be executrix and executors and Trustees of this my will and I give to my said nephew a legacy of Nineteen guineas as an acknowledgment for the trouble of executing this my will I give all the household furniture utensils and effects including plate linen china glass books pictures prints and jewelry of which I shall die possessed to my said wife absolutely and I also give to my said wife for her own use the sum of two hundred pounds sterling which I direct to be paid or retained within one calendar month after my death out of the first moneys which shall be received from my estate

I devise and bequeath all my fifty three equal one hundred and ninety second undivided parts or shares or other my parts or shares of and in certain plantations fisheries lands and hereditaments situate in the Island of Newfoundland and the leasehold dwelling house in which I now reside and all the rest and residue of my property both real and personal to which I shall be entitled at the time of my death unto my said Trustees their heirs executors administrators and assigns respectively upon trust to sell my said real and leasehold estates either together or in parcels and by public auction or private contract and as to my Newfoundland property either with or without the concurrence of my co-owners or any of them with power to make any special conditions as to title or evidence of title or otherwise and to convey and assign the premises respectively so sold to the purchaser or purchasers thereof and upon trust to convert and get in my other residuary personal estate and to invest the monies to arise from such sale and conversion as aforesaid in the names or name of the Trustees or Trustee for the time being of this my will in or upon any of the public stocks or funds of the United Kingdom (and not upon any other security) with liberty to vary and transpose the investment from time to time for any other investment of the description aforesaid and upon further trust to permit and empower my said wife to receive or otherwise to pay to my said wife the annual income of the said moneys or the stocks or funds whereon the same shall be invested during her life for her separate use without power of anticipation and free from the debts control or interference of any future husband And from and after her death as to such part of the said moneys stocks and funds as shall have arisen from or shall represent my said property in Newfoundland and the annual income thenceforth to become due for the same upon trust for such one or more exclusively of the others or other of my sons Robert Brooks Were Thomas Francklin Were Henry Were and Walter Morris Were and my daughter Edith Were or their respective issue and in such shares and proportions and with such conditions and generally in such manner as my said wife shall by deed with or without power of revocation or by her will notwithstanding coverture and whether convert or sole appoint and in default of such appointment and subject to any incomplete appointment upon trust for my said sons and daughter or such of them as shall survive me and live to attain the age of twenty one years in equal shares the share of my said daughter in such case to be held upon the trusts hereinafter contained with reference to the sixth shares of the residue hereinafter bequeathed for her benefit but in case of the death in my lifetime of any of my said children leaving issue living at my death such issue shall take equally between themselves the share which their parent would have taken had he or she survived me but I declare that no appointee under the aforesaid power give to my said wife shall participate in the unappointed fund without bringing the appointed share or interest into hotchpot And as to the residue of the said money and stocks and funds and the annual income to become due for the same after the death of my said wife upon trust as to one equal sixth part thereof for my said son Robert Brooks Were absolutely And as to one other equal sixth part thereof for my said son Thomas Francklin Were absolutely and as to one other equal sixth part thereof for my said son Henry Were absolutely and as to one other equal sixth part thereof for my said son Walter Morris Were absolutely and as to the remaining two equal sixth parts thereof upon trust for my said daughter Edith Were during her life for her sole and separate use without power of anticipation and her receipt alone shall be a good discharge for the same And I empower my said daughter by her will to appoint to or in favor of any husband she may marry the whole or any part of the yearly income of the said two equal sixth parts during his life and from and after the death of my said daughter I declare that the said two equal sixth parts and the annual income thereof shall be held upon trust for such of the children of my said daughter as being sons or a son shall attain the age of twenty one years or being daughters or a daughter shall attain that age or marry under that age and if more than one in equal shares and if only one such child then upon trust for such only child absolutely and if no child of my said daughter shall attain a vested interest under the aforesaid trust then in trust for such of my said sons as shall be living at the death of my said daughter and for the issue then living of such of my said sons as shall have previously died leaving issue then living in equal shares per stirpes Provided always and I hereby declare that my said Trustees or Trustee for the time bing shall have a discretionary power to postpone for such period as to them or him shall seem expedient the sale of my said real and leasehold estates and the conversion or getting in of any part of my residuary personal estate but the unsold real and leasehold estates and the outstanding personal estate shall be subject to the trusts hereinbefore contained concerning the monies stocks and funds aforesaid and the rents and yearly produce thereof shall be deemed annual income for the purposes of such trusts and such real estate shall be transmissible as personal estate under the trusts hereinbefore contained and I hereby declare that it shall be lawful for my said Trustees or Trustee to devise all or any part of my said real and leasehold estates either in Newfoundland or in England for any term of years at a rack-rent and to concur with all or any of my co-owners of the said Newfoundland property in granting any such lease and also to make partition of all or any of the hereditaments in Newfoundland of which I am now possessed of undivided shares with liberty to give or accept any sum or sums of money for equality of partition and thereupon to execute such deed or deeds as may be requisite or proper for effecting such partition and I empower my Trustees or Trustee for the time being of this my will to give receipts for all monies and to effects to be paid or delivered to such Trustees or Trustee by virtue of this my will and I declare that such receipts shall exonerate the persons taking the same from liability to see to the application of the moneys or effects therein mentioned I authorize and empower my said Trustees or Trustee to compound or allow time for the payment of any debt or debts due to my estate and to satisfy all demands against my estate whether supported by strictly legal evidence or not and to settle all accounts between me and my co-owners of the Newfoundland property or between me and any other person or persons whatsoever on such terms as my said Trustees or Trustee shall in their or his discretion think expedient and to refer any matters in difference relating to my affairs to arbitration I declare that if my said Trustees hereinbefore named or any of them shall die in my lifetime or if they or any of them or any Trustees or Trustee to be appointed under this power shall after my death die or be unwilling to act or desire to be discharged it shall be lawful for the surviving or continuing Trustees or Trustee for the time being (and for this purpose every retiring Trustee shall if willing to act be deemed a continuing Trustee) or for the executors or administrators of the last surviving or continuing Trustee to appoint any person or persons to be Trustee or Trustees in the place of the person or persons so dying or being unwilling to act or desiring to be discharged and every Trustee so appointed shall have the same powers in all respects as if he had been hereby nominated a Trustee And I exempt every Trustee of this my will from liability for losses occurring without his own wilful due fault and authorize him to remain and allow to his co-trustees all expenses incidental to the trusteeship I devise all the real estates if any vested in me as Trustee or Mortgagee to my said Trustees subject to the trusts or equities affecting the same respectively I appoint my said wife during her life to be guardian and after her death my said Trustees or Trustee for the time being to be guardians of my infant children during their minorities and it is my will that the income to which any infant may be entitled under this my will or a competent part thereof shall be applied for his or her maintenance and education during his or her minority Lastly I revoke all former wills made by me and declare that this writing consisting of four sheets of paper contains the whole of my will In witness whereof I have hereunder set my hand this nineteenth day of July one thousand eight hundred and sixty nine and I have also set my hand to each of the three preceding sheets of this my will-

Thomas Were Signed published and declared by the said testator Thomas Were as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us present at the same time who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunder subscribed our names as witnesses thereunto-

By this codicil to my last will and testament dated nineteenth of July 1869 I revoke at his desire the appointment of my nephew Robert Were Coleman as an executor Trustee and Guardian I also revoke his legacy of nineteen guineas I now appoint my son Walter Morris Were to these offices in connection with my dear wife and sons Thomas Francklin Were and Henry Were In all other respects I confirm my said will. In witness whereof I have hereunder set my hand this twenty second day of October in the year of our Lord 1872.

Thomas Were- Signed published and declared by the testator as and for a codicil to his last will and testament in the presence of each of us present at the same time who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses- William Stephen Ramsey Evans, Gentleman- Ann Mary Holder, Domestick Servant.

Certified correct,D. M. Browning
Registrar

Note: The wills in those will books are NOT actual wills. They are either hand-written copies or in later years typed copies of a, "last will and testament," written or typed by the court clerk, after the death of the testator, when the executor presented them to the court for probate. The court clerk didn't list the signatures at the bottom, he (or she) just put them in the book in whatever order they were in, on the original document, no spacing most of the time, no punctuation. The originals were kept by the executor.

We who have typed these wills, have made every effort to include all the errors that were on the microfilm, in order to avoid destroying the integrity of the originals, where ever they may be.

Page Contributed by Judy Benson & Ivy F. Benoit

Page Revised by Ivy F. Benoit (Wednesday February 20, 2013)

Newfoundland's Grand Banks is a non-profit endeavor.
No part of this project may be reproduced in any form for any purpose other than personal use.